Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade, has slammed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for its unfair treatment of the state.
Ayade voiced his disapproval of the commission’s attitude towards the state in Calabar when the management of the Commission led by its acting Managing Director, Professor Nelson Brambaifa, paid him a courtesy call.
He said the story of the state in the NDDC “has been that of melancholy. We have been reduced to want in body, soul and spirit.
“In sociology, any child who has very little and the other one has more, a mother is allowed to take from the one that has more and give to the one that has little.
“In NDDC, it is the states that have more money that are allocated bigger projects. It is not African. It is inhuman and inconsistent with the core principles of Kantianism that I know. In all honesty we have structured a society for aggressive rebellion.”
He therefore, pleaded that the state be treated fairly, especially “when one considers the fact that we have a land mass of over 21,000 square kilometres, larger than the entire Niger Delta. Connecting two local governments is larger than any state in the Niger Delta with international boundaries to over four countries with its attendant challenges. We have been excluded by the NDDC from its original philosophy of making a prosperity agenda for the region.
“It is so sad that at the height of kidnapping and all the criminality in the Niger Delta, Operation Delta Safe was mobilised to all the states except Cross River. So, all the militants now found Cross River a safe haven.”
This once peaceful, beautiful state suddenly became safe haven for militants and kidnappers to inhabit and distort our complete sight. The basis was that there were no pipelines in Cross River. So, as a government we now place premium on oil over blood. Africa has never shown this kind of disdain to a weaker brother.”
